Tire studs



United States Patent Inventor Benjamin H. Shwayder Franklin, Michigan July 24, 1968 Nov. 10, 1970 Shwayder Chemical Metallurgy Corporation Detroit, Michigan App]. No. Filed Patented Assignee TIRE STUDS 2 Claims, 16 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 152/210 lnl.Cl 860C 11/16 Field of Search 152/210 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1964 Coate 3,230,997 l/l966 Carlstedt 152/210 3,407,860 10/1968 Mossberg 152/210 3,124,191 3/1964 Forslund FOREIGN PATENTS 253,370 4/1967 Austria H 152/210 1,342,665 9/1963 France 152/210 12,231 5/1911 Great Britain .7 152/210 216,618 5/1967 Sweden 4. 152/210 Primary ExaminerArthur L. La Point Attorney-Cullen, Sloman & Cantor ABSTRACT: A tire stud having an enlarged head and a narrowed shank, out of which a hardened insert extends, with threads formed upon the circumference of the head for screw threading the stud into an opening formed in a tire surface.

Patentd Nov. 10, 1970 Sheet FIG-2 FIGZ) INVENTOR BENJAMIN H. SHWAYDER ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 10, 1970 v 3,538,970

Sheet of2 w L46 v INVENTOR I \l w BENJAMIN H. SHWAYDER ATTORNEYS which the attached drawings form a part.

it .YT E T Y fgsAcko ouNuorlNvE iou ;Conventio nal'tire"studs are formedof a headed, rivetlike portioncontaining'ia hardenedinsert, such as of tungsten carbidmextending out of the'shankportion of the rivet. These studs are mounted upon automotive: tires which generally are in the form of so-called snow tires having smallradial holes arranged in the tread area. Thestuds are forced into such holes bypressure; such as by pneumatic tools or the like, which press the studs, head first,.intolthe holes to displace the rubber around the heads for thereby retaining the studs in position.

I 1Conventionallyiretail outlets selling tires stock various size tires for 'sale either with er without studs. .Should the v purchaser want the studs, the retailer, using'suitable equip FIGS. 3, and S'iIIustr'ate the successive steps of inserting and retaining the tire stud within a hole formed in an automotive-type tire.

'FIGS. 6, 7 and illustrate modifications of the surface roughening formed upon the-shank of the stud.

FIG. 9 is an elevational'thereon. of a modification of the head and threads formed thereon,

)FIG. 10 is an end view taken in.the .dlI'BCtIOII of arrows 10-10 ofFlG. 9.

FIG. I1 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the upper portion of a tire s'tudshowing a modification in the grippingv 7 means.

ment,'presses.asmany studs asare necessary into the holes formed in the tire thereby providing a-studded tire useful for antiskid purposes. e

- Since'the studs must be mounted, one by one, upon the tire,

- a considerable amount 'of. time, labor and equipment is requiredgfor this-purpose whichresults in 'a relatively high price,heyondthecimt ofthe tire itself, to the consumer.

Hence, an object of this invcntion is toprovide tr specially designed tire stud when may be mounted upon'the tire without the conventional special equipment so that the consumer may 7 apply. the studs himself and therebyavoid the expense of retailer labor'or alternatively, the retailer may apply the studs without the expense of maintaining expensive equipment for that purpose.- i

h t j SUMMARY OFIN V ENTIO N dThis inventioncontemplates forming the head of the stud thicker than conventional and with threads formed around its circumference so that the studs may be threadedly inserted into the hole s in fthe, tire by twisting the stud, thereby completely eliminating the needfor'pressure types of equip- 'ment for axially forcing thestud "into the tire, hole. Inthis manner, simplefequipment, such as a screwdriver or a suitable wrench may be usedfor inserting thestuds and the job .may then be done by the consumer himself or by anyone, without special equipment.

A further object of this invention is to provide a tire stud having a threaded head for twisting insertion'into the receiving holes on a tire and with the shank of the stud suitably configured for roughening whereby the combination of the roughening on the shank and the threads interlocks the stud to the rubber of the tire to thereby prevent loosening or accidental removal. Since a loose stud tends to move relative to the tire and thereby increase. the heat of the tire surface, this invention by eliminating such relative movement or byreducing it to a considerable extent, considerably reduces this overheating effect of conventional studs.

This invention further contemplates forming vanes or protuberances upon theinsert so that it betterlocks and secures itself to the surrounding rivet-portion to thereby provide a more rigid and better unitary construction.

Summarizing,the tire stud hereinincludes a rivet portion having a shank and an enlarged, thickened, head portion upon which threads are formed, with surface roughening formed integral with the shank portion, and an insert contained within the rivet, the entire unit being arranged for threadedly engaging rinto the opening or hole in the tread part of a tire for mounting bytwisting rather than by axial pressure and for inter locking with the rubberof the tire.

f Fdrther objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following description, of

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an enlarged elevational view of the tire stud herein. is a crosssectionalview, similar to FIG. 1-, of the tire isfgdi rm wt.

I the direction of arrows 16-16 of FIG; 15

I f -DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the tire stud l0 comprises an integral shank II and thickened, enlarged head 12. The shank and head maybe referred to as the rivetlike or rivet portionof the stud.

. A central opening extends through the rivet portion, with the opening having an upper, inwardly tapered part 13 and a lower, relatively, straight port 14 of a smaller diameter than the smallest diameter of the upper portion to thereby form an internal, annular shoulder 15.

' v A tapered insert- 16 is arranged to fit within the tapered I upper openingpart and to abut against the'shoulder so that its outer end 17 extendsoutwardly of the free end of the shank for engagement with the ,road during use of the tireupon which the stud ismounted. r

The insert may be formed of a suitable hardened material, such as the conventionally used tungsten carbide materials and may be secured within the opening either by friction by means of a press fit or by means of a suitable bonding material,

such as bybrazing or the like.

The surface of the shank I1 is roughened, as for example,

.by providingcontinuous annular rings18 spaced along the. length of the shank for interengaging and interlocking with the rubber of the tire.

A thread 19 isformed upon the outer circumference or periphery of the head, which thread may be a single continuous thread or discontinuous portions of a thread. Sockets 20 are formed in th'e upper surface of the head to receive a turning tool, with the sockets being suitably configured to match the particular tool to be used.

APPLICATION OF STUD TO TIRE FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate a portion of a conventional snowtype tire 21 having an outer tread or peripheral portion 22 in whicha number of radially directed stud receiving holes 23 have been preformed.

As shown in FIG. 3, by way of example, a forked end rotata ble tool 24 having legs 25, whose ends fit within the sockets 20 formed in the head, is rotated and pushed downwardly toward the-hole 23 formed in the'tire. The hole is'of a considerably smaller diameter than the head of the stud and also is of a smaller diameter than the shank 11.

By rotating the tool, as by manual rotation or by use of an ordinary powered drill, the stud is forced into the hole, displacing and causing the rubber of the tire to plastically flow around it, as illustrated in FIG. 4. Ultimately, the stud bottoms in the hole with excess rubber at the head portion plastically flowing into the stud hole portion 14 as illustrated by 26 in FIG. '5. Now the stud is surrounded by the rubber of the tire which interlocks with the thread 19 and the roughening ringsmodifiedg'ripping means in the form of a screwdriver-type 18 to tightly grip and hold the stud in position and against relative movement with the tire. The end 17 of the insert extends outwardly of the peripheral surface of the tire for engaging with the road surface and thereby functioning to increase the antiskid properties of the tire.

The rings 18, being sloped upwardly, relatively easily engage into the hole, but having flat upper edges, interlock with the rubber tightly enough to prevent the studs from being pulled out or thrown out during movement of the tire.

The hole portion 14 also serves as an access opening for salvaging the inserts from used or broken studs by means of pushing it upwardly out of the rivet by means of a suitable punch.

MODIFICATIONS OF SHANK SURFACE ROUGI-IENINGS FIG. 6 shows a modified form of surface toughening for the shank, namely, rounded edged rings 27 formed integral with the shank.

FIG. 7 shows a different form of ring 28 having relatively sharp edges for biting into the rubber. The rings here may he formed as either discontinuous, spaced apart rings, or as a continuous thread like that of a screw.

FIG. 8 illustrates a deep knurling 29 formed upon the surface of the shank for frictionally engaging the rubber.

MODIFIED RIVET FIGS. 9 and illustrate a rivet 30, having the lower end of its enlarged head 31 formed into the thread 32. This rivet may be made of sheet metal, die formed into the shape formed with a central opening 33 and by means of suitably rolling the free edge of the head, the threads may be formed as illustratedv MODIFIED GRIPPING MEANS FIG. ll illustrates a hex nut configuration 35 formed integral with the upper end of the shank of the rivet so that the rivet may be gripped by a suitably sized socket wrench, which may be attached to a hand twist tool or to a power drill for thereby inserting the rivet into the hole in the tire.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 12, a screwdriver slot 36 may be formed in the end 17 of the insert so that the user may simply screw the stud into the tire hole by twisting it with an ordinary screwdriver until it bottoms within the hole.

MODIFIED INSERTS Rather than using the tapered insert illustrated in FIG. 2, the insert may be formed of a cylindrical portion 40 having outwardly extending, thin, vanes, 41 as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14. The number of vanes may be varied, such as l, 2, 3 or 4 and to better increase the gripping power of the vanes, they may be spiralled slightly along the length of the insert. Here, the insert is press-fitted into the corresponding opening of the rivet and the vanes will bite into and frictionally engage the inner wall surface of the opening of the rivet to thereby tightly lock to the rivet to form a unitary, substantially nonseparable construction.

An alternate insert construction, shown in FIGS. 15 and I6, contemplates an insert stem 42 with an enlarged head 43 and shortened, thin side vanes 44. The stem is arranged within the opening 45 of the rivet shank 46 so that the head overlaps and substantially covers the end of the shank while the vanes bite into the shank wall for thereby locking the shank and the insert together.

This invention may be further developed within the scope of the following claims. Accordingly, it is desired that the foregoing description be read as being merely illustrative of an operative embodiment of this invention, and not in a strictly limited sense.

Iclaim:

l. A tire stud comprising a rivet portion having an enlarged, circular in cross section head and an integral shank having a central through bore with a hardened insert arranged within said bore and extendin outwardly of the free end of the shank; a massive radia y outwardly extending single-turn thread formed integral upon the outer periphery of said head and extending nearly the full length of the head for screw thrcadedly engaging with the wall of a radially directed hole formed in a ruhberlike tire for thereby advancing the stud into the hole and frictionally locking and holding the stud within.

said hole.

2. A tire stud as defined in claim 1 and at least one radially outwardly extending, thin vane formed integral with said insert and extending the length thereof; said insert biting into the wall defining the bore in said shank for frictionally interlocking the insert and the shank. 

